Microfluidic synthesis for advanced nanotechnology

POLY 226

Kyung Choi, Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697
Chemists have been seeking for novel synthetic routes to synthesize novel materials. Microfluidic synthesis has taken a great attention to chemists and materials scientists due to specific advantages, which can't be achieved from conventional synthetic approaches. We present here the operations of novel microfluidic reactors designed for microfluidic synthetic purposes. The use of microfluidic reactors/ mixers offers us a number of advantages over existing chemistry. For example, chemical reactions and mixings run in microfluidic reactors /mixers have shown high thermal and mass transfer rates with an opportunity to use for more aggressive reactions. Additionally, good chemical homogeneity, especially for nano-particle synthesis, can be achieved by mixing multiple components at the micro-scales. The microreactors can be coupled to additional processing steps and products transported directly for integration into active devices or as part of assays. The overall object is to carry out the entire operations effectively performed at the micro-scales.